{"id":1908,"date":"2010-11-27T06:00:21","date_gmt":"2010-11-27T13:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mikesenese.com\/DOIT\/?p=1908"},"modified":"2026-03-08T21:04:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T04:04:26","slug":"hdtv_coathanger_antenna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mikesenese.com\/DOIT\/2010\/11\/hdtv_coathanger_antenna\/","title":{"rendered":"Improve Your TV Viewing With This 30-Minute Antenna Project For Free HDTV Broadcasts"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I recently bit the bullet and bought a TV. Nothing extravagant, just a 28″ Hannspree LCD<\/a> with enough resolution to allow it to double as a second computer monitor (and it does so nicely). But after years of using a Mac Mini, 19″ monitor, and a Netflix account, I actually have a TV that has the cable\/antenna inputs and a tuner built in.<\/p>\n

However, I’m still not ready to get a cable subscription. Even doing television shows as my job, I want to explore other options first. Netflix still reigns king in my living room, but after plugging into a dormant coaxial cable line, I discovered that I’m pulling in about 40 stations of digital HDTV Over The Air (OTA), all broadcasting with clarity that I’ve hardly seen on a screen before. It’s amazing how well Cox\/TimeWarner\/DirectTV etc have done at making cable\/dish seem to be the only options for television viewing.<\/p>\n

The OTA transmissions are much more advanced than the analog television I’d watch as a kid \u2013 each channel transmits a substantial amount of info that displays \u00a0nicely in the upper left corner of the screen. Channel name, show name, signal strength and more. Channels are multi-cast, meaning there’s a primary transmisison and three sub-transmissions (like a dedicated NBC weather broadcast on channel 7-3). And I know I mentioned the clarity, but just in case you missed it: the clarity is shocking.<\/p>\n

One thing I’ve noticed since my initial auto-channel scan is that a few of the channels I’m watching have come and gone, and even with the clarity, the signal strength isn’t that stellar (I’m averaging around 22%). All this got me thinking about a chat that I had with Robert Cole <\/a>a few months ago in Knoxville, who had just built his own antenna setup <\/a>and blogged about it. Revisiting that blog post, I’ve just found my next DIY project.<\/p>\n

(EDIT: my antenna is now complete, and works awesome \u2013 89 channels over the air, as shown by my autoscan)<\/p>\n

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From Robert’s writeup, here’s what’s needed to get started:<\/p>\n

(1) 300-ohm to 75-ohm balun<\/a> ($1.99 at Amazon, or get it at RadioShack or Ace)
\n(8) metal coat hangers
\n(1) 2?x4? at least a couple feet long
\n(1) piece of plywood
\n(10) washers
\n(10) screws
\nA few feet of Romex or other copper wire
\nSome tinfoil<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The build is pretty straightforward:<\/p>\n